Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Award Conferred for Leadership in Agriculture

Dr. M. C. Saxena bags the Award

New Delhi, 25 January, 2012

Dr. Balram Jakhar, Former Union Minister of Agriculture and Speaker, Lok Sabha conferred 6th Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Award for leadership in Agriculture to Dr. M.C. Saxena, Senior Advisor to Director General, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and a renowned agricultural scientist with wide acclaim for his contribution in legume research and development. The Prestigious award, initiated by the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), enjoys global recognitions as life-time achievement.

While speaking as a Chief Guest, Dr. Jakhar highlighted the role played by the scientists in bringing green revolution in the country. He urged young scientists to show practicality of their knowledge directly to farmers. 'Policy makers, agricultural scientists and farmers should work together to find means and ways to prosper the country', he said.

Dr. R.S. Paroda, Chairman, TAAS presented the overview and major achievements of TAAS. He opined that legume can play an important role in achieving nutritional security in the country. Dr. M.C. Saxena, through his presentation on 'Challenges and Opportunity for Food Legumes Research and Development' outlined the future challenges for legumes. 'Enhancing economic competitiveness of food legumes, improving intrinsic yield, enhancing adaption to niches in diverse cropping system, reducing cost of production, enhancing end use quality and use diversification, maximizing realization of yield potential, managing abiotic and biotic stresses are the major challenges', he added. Dr. Saxena highlighted the role of genomics and gene management in overcoming these challenges.

Dr. S. Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE and DG, Indian Council of Agricultural Research praised the role played by Dr. Saxena globally in legumes. 'Our concern is dryland agriculture, pulses and oilseeds. ICAR is going to start several programmes to enhance pulse productivity', he said.

Earlier, Dr. N.N. Singh, Secretary, TAAS presented the Citation. Dr. P.L.Gautam, Chairman, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Right Authority presented vote of thanks.

(Source-NAIP Sub-Project on Mass Media Mobilization, DKMA)